Rob Dickinson, former singer of Catherine Wheel, is happy to be back in Toronto for a show tonight with a full band at The Mod Club.

Catherine Wheel was a band from England that had a bunch of hit songs in the '90s which included Black Metallic, Crank, I Want To Touch You and The Nude. Some of these songs have been rerecorded as acoustic versions that are now available as a bonus CD along with his most recent Fresh Wine for the Horses album, which had trouble getting out of the starting gates.

We met this afternoon to talk about going solo and his impressions of Toronto. His speaking voice was much lower than I thought it would be, considering his upper vocal range. "Hopefully it'll be high and girl-like tonight," he joked.

He attributed this to singing almost nonstop since getting into Toronto on Friday to rehearse with a new rhythm section that his friend Darrin Pfeiffer of Goldfinger helped him find. Rounding out the band is Michael Isenstein (formerly of Letters To Cleo) on guitar and Jason Sniderman (from Blue Peter; also son of Sam Sniderman of Sam the Record Man) on keyboards.

Q&A with Dickinson on Toronto audiences, taxi drivers and baristas after the jump....

The Night of the Avant Garde at The Royal Ontario Museum (The ROM) celebrated the completion of the Daniel Libeskind designed Michael Lee-Chin Crystal last Thursday.

The night featured the North American premiere of Simon Bainbridge's Music Space Reflection, a celebration of Daniel Libeskind's architecture. Bainbridge conducted the piece which was performed by 24 musicians from CONTACT contemporary music, a Toronto collective of musicians.

While the attendees didn't seem really into the avant garde music all that much, at least it resonated well within the architecture. The ROM should have more performances in this space, as it's practically created for this sort of performance.

Rockstar Hotel was the name of the pre-MuchMusic Video Awards (MMVA) show on Saturday night, where hipsterati filtered in and out of the rooms and halls of The Gladstone Hotel to catch a glimpse of their favourite celebrity and get a chance to score some free swag.

Outside there was a red carpet entrance to make the celebs feel welcome. Inside there were rooms sponsored by Puma, Fido, Zune and Fuze, offering freebies to the VVIPs. Pity a mere VIP green bracelet wasn't enough to snag a pair of new kicks from Puma's runway shoe line.

Swervedriver fans packed into a sweaty Lee's Palace Friday night for their NXNE performance while thunderstorms raged outside.

It's just after midnight and I'm in the safe haven of Lee's as Montreal's The Besnard Lakes hit the stage. I can feel the sweat dripping down the back of my legs even though I'm just standing still, trying to take in the band. The place is that packed.

In the heat and the stench of beer-drenched, sweaty fans I get a whiff of something worse and look behind me. Some douchebag has lit up a cigarette.

It's Thursday night, my first night of North By Northeast (NXNE), I'm heading to The El Mocambo to see The New Odds. Walking along College Street by Rancho Relaxo, I catch an earful of a decent song and head upstairs.

Not far from Chinatown, it's apropos to see a band called Chinese Food. The lead singer (pictured below, right) is givin' er and the crowd is eating it up like post club-night grub at New Ho King.

Down the stairs and round the corner to the ElMo, I get there just in time to see The Kids In the Hall's Dave Foley introduce what he calls "one of the best bands on the planet."

Last weekend's Woofstock festival, brought Toronto's dogs and dog owners to St. Lawrence Market to frolic among the many vendors and booths.

I was amazed to see such a variety of breeds this year. It looks like our city is also a mosaic of cultures from a dog's point of view. I a Jug (Jack Russell Terrier mixed with Pug) and Afgan Hound, Great Dane, Chihuahua, English Springer Spaniel, Pomeranian, Yorkshire Terrier and Bassett Hound all in one day.

"I picked up food, cleaning products, a harness and doggie frozen yogourt in banana and peanut butter flavour," said Julie Burns, who had her hands full of loot from all the vendors' booths. Burns gave Georgia, her one-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel a ride in its own little green carrier, worn somewhat like a mother carrying her baby.

Many more cute pooches-in-arms in a mini photo slideshow after the jump....